Tuition Cut! Why This College Decided to Lower Their Tuition by 33%

One of the oldest colleges in the United States has announced their decision to cut tuition 33%. St. John’s College, founded in 1696, is a private Liberal Arts institution with an emphasis on classical philosophy and literature. The school has two campuses, one in Annapolis, Maryland and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Currently, St. John’s have a total enrollment of 896 graduate and undergraduate students. All classes are taught seminar-style, and students do not have majors.

Recently, St. John's announced it would be cutting its tuition for the 2019 - 2020 academic school year by about 33 percent, from $52,000 to $35,000.

Of course there has been plenty of discussion that concluded to this decision. St. John’s current model is tuition-centered, but with the tuition cut, the model is changing to philanthropy-centered. With the new focus of giving, the institution believes the change will benefit its students and the college.

St. John's plans to launch a $300-million capital campaign to assist with fundraising. The difficulty with this new model is that it will require significant fundraising and generous donors. If St. John's meets their $300 million fundraising goal by 2023, it will have doubled its endowment.